MCLAREN RACE TOWARDS SUCCESS...OFF THE TRACK

MORE than 800 motor industry workers will be joining former Formula One team boss Ron Dennis to create a stunning new range of McLaren supercars.McLaren Automotive have set aside the economic gloom with plans for a new high technology production facility equipped to develop and manufacture the new range of Ferrari-rivalling British sports cars from 2011. Located adjacent to the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, England, the McLaren Production Centre should support production of 20 McLaren cars per day and prompt a significant numbers boost the current 1,500-strong workforce. An application for planning permission was submitted on Tuesday (19) to Woking Borough Council. Ron Dennis said: "Ever since we revealed the McLaren F1 sports car in 1992, it has been a long-held dream of mine to launch a McLaren sports car company. "Designing, developing and selling globally the best sports cars in the world is just half of that equation; building them to previously un-matched levels of quality, with ground-breaking technologies in a production facility in the UK is key to satisfying that dream. "I believe that if the McLaren Production Centre is given the go ahead, it will be an engineering centre of excellence of which McLaren and the UK can be proud."Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is also planning to increase its manufacturing workforce by 50 per cent. More than 150 new jobs have been created to support the production of the company’s new model, the Rolls-Royce Ghost. By the end of 2009 Rolls-Royce will have created almost 400 new jobs in under two years, bringing the total number of employees based at Goodwood, West Sussex to 900.